While walking through the local Barnes and Noble a couple days ago, I saw that Tim Tebow had just released a memoir. It got me thinking about the level of accomplishment, or lack thereof, that is required these days before writing your memoirs. In short, not a whole lot.
The one good, recently released memoir that I have read is Christopher Hitchen’s “Hitch-22.” I remember him saying something along the lines of thinking that it was still too early for him to write his memoirs but at his age he knew it could very quickly become too late.
Somehow I don’t think my generation ever wonders if it is “too early” for them to write their memoirs. For them, it is never too early. I’ve grown weary of these constant “my story” essays and books. If you are still in your twenties and thirties chances are your life story isn’t all that interesting yet.
I remember Christopher Buckley, a former speechwriter for George Bush when he was VP, saying that “anyone who spends twenty minutes in D.C. writes a tell-all later.” He was being sarcastic, but their is alot of truth in the statement( http://dailycaller.com/2011/06/30/thedc-interview-lisa-baron-author-of-life-of-the-party-a-political-press-tart-bares-all/). I remember reading an Ivy League blogger who earnestly said that she would be taking time off before her first post-college job becasue she wanted to write her memoirs.
Writing your memoirs as an early adult is narcissistic and lazy, which makes it the perfect literary pasttime for my generation. It is much easier to write about the frat parties you went to than actually studying and developing an expertise in an area that has nothing to do with yourself.
I also wonder if this rise of the early memoir is not an attempt to fill a niche that our statesmen used to fill. Nowadays, our politicians (with alot of help from ghostwriters) churn out their memoirs filled with some of the most banal, politically correct fluff (I am speaking now of the “blue-collar, rough childhood that all of our leaders seem to have now.) imaginable.
Sadly, now that I think about it. Tebow, a QB who has won exactly one game in the NFL, by today’s standards took way too long to write his memoir. He should have published it after his sophomore year at Florida with the minimal amount of accolades required to write a memoir in today’s world. Heck, maybe I’ll get started on mine…
calebtaylor 